A software build is the process of creating the software application binaries for a software release. They are done in a periodic manner by build teams to provide baseline binaries (build outputs) for daily work of software developers. Build processes involve many tools that process build inputs. These build inputs may be files such as source code and content files, for example. These files may reference (invisibly to the build process) other files based solely on their content. Incremental builds for software faces a significant challenge that comes in two forms: determining which files are accessed for read and/or write by a tool during a build and deciding which parts of a build to re-run when one or more files are changed in order to bring build outputs up to date. The problem with previous implementations is that they either resulted in an approximation at best of the actual dependencies of part of a build process (through “scanning” the file content), or the mechanism was entirely specific to the build tool itself.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a system that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.